The butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. We live in a present world where news are delivered to us instantaneously through multiple channels. A terror attack thousands of miles away affects our emotions, while we are also obsessed with the dressing of a celebrity we would never meet. The mass media cycle tends to focus on big events that happen in populous cities. Our collective obsession focuses on the sensational, the extremes that repulse, intrigue and ultimately creates and serves attention. How does news and the flow of information change our behaviour for tomorrow? Big City, Small Things is a project that focuses on the insignificant events that happen in large cities. The project researches on news events that have happened and photographs the exact location where the event has since passed. It draws on the past and the present, the event and the non event. The project is photographed in Beijing, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
